The Indian Army will replace its aging Swedish-built 40mm L/70 air defense guns with weapons from domestic companies, a Defence Ministry source said, after the cancellation of a global tender floated last year that failed to elicit any response from overseas defense companies.
The MoD decided this month to float a $400 million domestic-only tender, the source said, to purchase 430 gun systems to replace the four-decade-old L/70 guns.
An executive with private Indian firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) said it would tie up with overseas defense companies to compete for the tender.
The tender, expected to be issued in three months, will go to state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and the Ordnance Factory Board, and to private-sector companies Tata Power SED, L&T, Punj Lloyd and Bharat Forge.
The new L/70 guns, which will be bought from local companies along with ammunition, will be used to protect areas of tactical importance in the mountains, plains, desert and semi-desert terrain.
The guns will be towed or mounted on a high-mobility vehicle, an Indian Army official said.
The new guns will be linked to advanced fire-control radars to automatically lock on to the target and signal the fire. The Army requires that the guns have the ability to engage air targets at a range of at least 4,000 meters and be capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute.
The Army operates about 2,000 L/70s, bought in the 1960s from Sweden, and upgraded in 1995 by BEL by adding a digital fire-control system. The gun’s rate of fire was increased from 240 to 300 rounds per minute by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation.
The Army has been pressing since 1997 for a full upgrade of the L/70s, including the addition of advanced radars, upgraded night-vision devices and the use of smart ammunition.
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